A sleazy gem of a giallo movie, directed by the underrated Italian director Sergio Martino, in which the camera ogles the curves of the (often naked) female cast at every opportunity. This is said to be one of the main films (along with A BAY OF BLOOD) that influenced Friday the 13th and the American slashers of the 1980s, and some scenes are very similar - namely the nubile half-naked young woman being stalked through the woods by a masked villain scene, or the various graphic murders that said mystery killer commits. Certainly the gore fan gets his money's worth here, with numerous strangulations, drownings, the killer gouging out the eyes of the corpses and slitting their bodies open, and, in a gruesome highlight, sawing through the limbs of a victim with a hacksaw whilst Suzy Kendall watches in sheer terror and disgust. This is pretty hard to see in its fully uncut version (only in Italy was it released as such) but whichever version you do see is bound to be a pretty gruelling experience.Martino directs a stylish and well-filmed movie which makes good use of the picturesque Italian countryside. Martino (along with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi) plays up the whodunit aspect of the plot whilst playing down the police investigation - the latter half of the film takes place in an isolated mountaintop location with only the girls, the killer, the milkman and a Peeping Tom handyman for company. The score helps add to the atmosphere a lot and familiar and veteran faces round out the cast. First up is pretty victim Suzy Kendall, who engages in a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase whilst hampered with a sprained ankle; John Richardson as kindly college professor Franz; and Luc Merenda as a friendly doctor. The list of suspects is endless and the movie keeps you guessing right through until the drawn-out finale.TORSO has many familiar giallo ingredients. There's the killer with a creepy mask (this time a balaclava) and black gloves who kills with a nasty weapon; the twisted blackmail plot that serves as a basis for the murders; and, of course, a perverted childhood incident which has resulted in the warped mind of the killer ("they were only dolls, stupid dolls made out of flesh and blood"). There's also an unexpected but nice little macho bust-up between hero and villain at the end of the movie which serves as a bonus for this action lover. On top of this, large doses of sex, cheesy dialogue in the dubbed version, violence, and suspense make this a worthwhile thriller.

A bunch of sex crimes happen around a college. Four women decide to get away for a while in this deserted house in the middle of nowhere. They immediately engage in lesbian sex, sunbathe in the nude and skinny dip---while they know there's a killer around! I saw the uncut version of this released on DVD. The violence was considerably cut originally when this came to the US in the early 1970s. Well, even intact, this is lousy. It's full of pointless female nudity and lesbian sex scenes. I realize most giallos have that but this one has an incredible amount! It OPENS with a long lesbian sex sequence which has little bearing on the plot. It's an Italian movie and with the sole exception of Suzy Kendall everyone was dubbed--and pretty badly too. They also can't act--only Kendall is any good (even if she's far too old to be playing a college student). The kill scenes have plenty of blood but the gore scenes are laughably fake. To make matters worse the plot makes next to no sense. There are only two real suspects--and one is made to act so suspicious you know he's not the killer! If you want to see every giallo ever made this is for you. But if u want a horror movie with brains, talent or realistic gore u can skip this one.

Sergio Martino made a lots of movies but he is going to be remember by his contribution with the Italian genre called Giallo. Also he discovered the beautiful Edwene Fenech and worked with great actors like Alberto De Mendoza, Ivan Rassimov and Geroge Hilton.Sadly none of them are in this movie but that's not a bad thing. The production lead was Carlo Ponti the husband of Sofia Loren. And the cast has a couple of international stars. Well in fact only Tina Aumont was the real international star. Suzy Kendall work because she was for her role in the bird with crystal plumage.In a roman university a killer stalks and chopped the eyes of really beautiful girls. Daniela (Tina Aumont) see the killer but she can recognize him or think is a boy called Stefano who is in love with her. She goes with two friends of vacations but the killer follow her. Suzy Kendal play's Daniela best friend who arrive later at Daniela's house.Now i wont give you the surprises but this film has a lot. The last forty minutes of the film are incredible and it was stolen in so many movies but without the same result. That show you how good was Martino directing. The movies is not very gory and the special effects are cheesy but that doesn't matter because the director show a lot of respect to the material and you can see he was having a good time The leads are quite funny in particular Tina Aumont and Suzy Kendall.Many people say this a proto slasher well in part i true. In fact is an slasher but not the first one. Mario Bava was doing to yeas before the first slasher Bay of blood. Still this movies has great scenes of suspense, Great camera-work and know how to play very wellHighly recommended

A masked, hacksaw wielding killer is preying on female students at an Italian University in this deliriously sleazy, but surprisingly classy giallo from Sergio Martino. There is nothing subtle about Martino's film, the title alone- TORSO, is just about as blunt as you can get, setting the tone from the start. It is truly quite a sleazy soft core porno flick with brutal murders. Torso is more of a guilty pleasure. The mixture of beautiful women and slash-happy maniac may be as old as the hills, but rarely are the two elements so accentuated as they are in the Italian giallo- and in the case of Martino's film they are taken to almost absurdist levels. The women are, for the most part, incredibly beautiful- Kendal and Aumount are especially stunning. The violence is, in complete opposite, and for want of a better word- crude. The victims are molested before being killed and, finally, dismembered. It is not, however, particularly graphic, in-so-much you do not actually see many of the wounds, but oblique views of a juddering hacksaw and the sounds of bone splintering leave little up to the imagination. The dismemberment theme extends to the women even before they meet their fate, Martino using the camera frame to 'cut-up' live, and usually naked, flesh.All in all Torso is surprisingly a pretty good thrller, the only disappointing part for me was when those three girls got murdered off screen and to be honest the killers identity wasn't at all a surprise